Facebook is 12 years old, having grown to become a dominant force on the internet, the largest social media company ever, claiming 1.59 billion monthly users.
ADVERTISEMENTLike it or not you can’t ignore it – Facebook is 12 years old.
In that time it has grown to become a dominant force on the internet, the largest social media company ever, claiming 1.59 billion people go on the site at least once a month.
Its influence has also increased with the purchase of WhatsApp – which has over one billion active users – and Instagram – with around 400 million – as well as the virtual reality firm Oculus Rift.
Facebook’s founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is predicting that by 2030, it will have five billion users, using drones to get internet access to areas that don’t currently have it.
Having got off to a slow start with advertising on mobile devices, the social network is now doing storming business in that area. Mobile ads accounted for 80 percent of total ad revenue in the final quarter of 2015, compared with about 78 percent in the third quarter and 69 percent a year earlier.
The company, which has the world’s most popular smartphone app, has also been benefiting from a surge in video views that has attracted advertising dollars.
When Facebook’s shares spiked after it reported its latest financial results, Zuckerberg moved past Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the fifth richest person in the world.
